2 Chandigarh-Delhi Shatabdis back on track; buses to be normal too

Two special trains with 2,400 passengers on board left for Delhi on Tuesday; Haryana Roadways to resume service from today

With violence-torn Haryana limping back to normal following Jat protests, the Haryana Roadways will resume its bus services from Wednesday. Moreover, two Shatabdi Express trains will also chug off from the Chandigarh railway station on Wednesday.

The Shatabdi Express trains scheduled for 6.53am and noon will go via Saharanpur to Delhi and will halt at official stoppages. Both these trains will take over five hours to reach Delhi instead of three hours. Shatabdi trains from the national capital, including the New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi — which will reach the city at 5pm, and the New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi, which will reach the city at 7pm — will follow the normal route via Panipat, said divisional railway manager (DRM) Dinesh Kumar.

Two special trains carrying over 2,400 passengers departed from the Chandigarh railway station to Delhi on Tuesday.

Passengers continued to face problems even on Tuesday as taxis were found charging `1,500-2,000 per seat from Chandigarh to Delhi. Four additional flights from the Chandigarh airport also witnessed a heavy rush.

Meanwhile, Haryana Roadways’ officials said the luxury Volvo buses would start plying from Wednesday for which online bookings would start from the morning. This comes nearly a week after the buses were taken off road due to Jat protests across Haryana.

Haryana additional chief secretary SS Dhillon said: “Most of the buses were off road till Monday, but we managed to resume the bus service up to Ambala, Panipat and Karnal on Tuesday. All bus services of Haryana Roadways will resume from Wednesday. We will also start our Volvo buses from Chandigarh to Delhi from Wednesday morning.” Around 300 buses ply from Karnal, Chandigarh and Panchkula per day, he added.

Officials said 129 Haryana Roadways buses for Ambala, 15 up to Karnal and six for Panipat from the Chandigarh bus stand on Tuesday. Only one Punjab Roadways bus left for Meerut at 11.30am, an alternative route to the national capital.

HUGE LOSSES

o Haryana Roadways suffered a loss of `17.5 crore and the railways `300 crore in the last five days due to Jat stir.

o Railways spokesperson Neeraj Sharma said losses include damage to railways stations, engines and trains and cancellation of tickets.

o Additional chief secretary, Haryana transport department SS Dhillon said: “A total of 99 buses have been partially damaged and 34 were burnt. Moreover, the roadways suffered `8 crore operational loss. It will take a month to bring the damaged buses back on the road.”

Bus service from Panchkula

PANCHKULA: Haryana Roadways resumed its service to Delhi from Panchkula after 5pm on Tuesday. A total of 13 buses go to the national capital from here.

“The bus service was resumed on Tuesday morning, but the buses were not going beyond Panipat. But after 5 pm, we resumed all our services,” said Satish Singla, general manager, Haryana Roadways, Chandigarh. HTC